Are you sending Christmas cards this year?

Woops! Thanks for the reminder. I spotted a box of cards left over from last year (or the year before) and decided it was about time to send some off. I'm afraid I am wont to send email cards nowadays, but there are a few old friends and colleagues who deserve better. And you can't put email cards on the mantelpiece!

keepingquiet

Like anything else some Christmas traditions change over time.

I used to take a pillow case to bed and get an orange and some nuts in the bottom...

I think that when Christmas cards were invented they were supposed to enable the sender to wish Merry Christmas to those they couldn’t do so in person. In my life that seems to be coming full circle.
I have cut down considerably and will write them to those family and friends that I won’t see this afternoon because I’ve got flu and am in bed.
My mum will still get one even though she lives in our annex! Too late to change her habits.

An ex neighbour who’d been a friend years ago, but who we’d kept sporadic touch with, did for some years send a 🎄card, and I always sent one back.
But for a few years there was nothing, then out of the blue she was in contact again, and I invited her for lunch - she was a half hour drive away. She came, and we had a very enjoyable time.

After that, absolutely nothing again for a few years, although she’d said she’d invite us back.

She’s a bit older than me, probably 80+ now, so I did start to wonder. Then, out of the blue a few months ago, a phone call!

I said, ‘Goodness, Maggie*, I’d started to think you were dead!’ 😂

*not her real name.

Yes, to family, clever se friends and those I rarely see but care about.

The cost of postage combines with the number of people sending a Christmas email rather than a card means I’ll send less than in the past

butterandjam - an aside: I know two little girls called Audrey.

I will only be sending cards I deem essential to maintain Diplomatic Relations.

And it's all because of the scandalous cost of stamps plus the utterly lousy delivery service.

Like everyone here I used to get about 50 cards if I get a dozen or 15 this year I ll be surprised many have died many have lost touch seems no point very very very sad

I love receiving cards at Christmas but like others my list is getting shorter, partly because there seems no point in sending to people I never see during the year and partly because some friends have died. I don’t begrudge the postage or the cost of the card.

Yes I do, but it's an ever decreasing number (sent and received) as old friends die off or economise on stamps. You know how it goes. For decades, Doreen and Stan who were next door neighbours in 1974 send Happy Christmas with love and their year condensed into 20 scribbly words . Writing gets harder to decipher every year (unless you got your cataracts done). Then a card comes signed Doreen with her new address because after Stan died she moved closer to the kids. Then one year, nothing from her.

If Doreen dies first you don't find out . Stan doesn't send Christmas cards because he doesn't know where she kept the list.

Eventually you no longer know any people with oldie names like Doreen, Stan, Audrey and Barry.

We used to send and receive 40 -ish. I think this year will be single numbers.

Yes but it’s very sad to look at the list and see how many friends and family have gone, my oldest friend died last April.

I've made a few cards to give to my art class friends and I send a few to friends who I see very infrequently. I send a contribution to "Crisis at Christmas" every year instead of sending lots of cards and post on FB with something original, over the years I've put up all sorts of things from a short vid of a robin taking food from my hand, a Christmas poem, a Christmas painting etc. tbh I'm a bit stuck for ideas this year!

Yes, all mine, inc. several for overseas, done and posted yesterday.
There are still several that dh needs to do, but he always leaves it so late….
I do like receiving them - they form part of our decorations, blu tacked to various vertical painted surfaces.

20 to hand deliver, 20 in the post yesterday. All done

Yes, to family we won’t see and distant friends.

We have moved to a close where people exchange cards. I haven’t been used to doing this but will join in with the community feeling.
For me a card is for someone you won’t see; neighbours I will see to wish a merry Christmas during Christmas week.

I enjoy sending and receiving them, but like other posters, our list gets shorter every year.

We've just sent off our foreign ones, I imagine they're all going to be too late to arrive before Christmas. Will get round to our much diminished home grown list later next week, like many people we're in two minds whether to keep it going and increasingly more people are sending ecards now. I think there are some we send to who definitely do like the physical card, so we reciprocate. I do like getting ones full of news though, well good news that is.

I do think it will die a bit with each successive year, it's not something that resonates so much with the younger generation, plus the ever rising costs of stamps will eventually kill it off.

No. haven’t done so for several years. When my Mum died I sent a donation instead to Alzheimers UK. Did that until my husband had a stroke last year and then changed donation to Stroke Association. This year it will be Pancreatic Cancer UK as my son is undergoing chemo soon following major surgery. I have already given them a donation as they are fantastic.

Oh and the little group of regular neighbours, but they don't cost a stamp. I did them early and. enjoyed it not being pressured then posted them a few days ago.

merlotgran

Blimey!
I thought you were putting that as a Christmas greeting in your cards! 😂

😳😳😳

Don't apologise, best smile of the day, laugh out loud moment.

I don't begrudge the cost of the stamp at all. For goodness sake, 87p to greet a few old friends? (I've sent maybe 16 to old friends, a few to family, the newsy letter just to a few non family dear friends for a real catch up.

Yes, for all the neighbours, but no, not for those that need postage stamps.
Most of my old friends live abroad, and I am in touch with most, by WhatsApp and FB. It won’t be any different at Christmas time.
Postage is too expensive 😫

I love sending and getting cards but I m cutting right down this year There’s no point in wishing someone a happy Christmas if you never speak any other time so it’s going, much to my sorrow, itwas the best part of Christmas for me 😭

Only doing 10 this year, to those who I know will send to me. Not posting yet, though.

No.
Will send to neighbours but are giving the rest a miss, only get a small number anyway. And have too much on my plate this year to
do Christmas.

No, we hand deliver.

Yes, just a few. The list has grown smaller and smaller due to old friends dying, me cutting down due to costs, etc.
But some people do look forward to them so I will keep going.